Today's systems for handling and delivering mail pieces, such as, for example, packages, letters, flats, catalogues, and postcards are highly complex. For instance, mail pieces may be input into a delivery system at any number of locations. The mail pieces may be input at a delivery office, such as a post office close to the mailer, or a delivery office close to the receiver of the mail piece. Similarly, the mail pieces may be addressed to a plurality of receivers, including receivers both near and far from the mailer. Oftentimes, mail pieces introduced into a delivery system are delivered via inefficient routes and services which thereby may incur additional costs.
One type of delivery service for mail pieces in a delivery system is bulk mailing. Bulk delivery involves consolidating a group of mail pieces together so that they may be input into a delivery system together. For those entities involved in bulk delivery, inefficiencies in delivery systems can compound into exorbitant and unnecessary charges for the mailer. For example, mail consolidators provide a type of bulk delivery. Mail consolidators are entities which take mail pieces from a plurality of sources and combine the mail pieces to obtain the best delivery rates of the delivery system, such as bulk delivery discount rates. With such a great number of mail pieces, mail consolidators must find the most cost-efficient ways of utilizing a delivery system. For example, when mail consolidators use a delivery system, such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), the mail consolidators must choose where in the delivery stream of the delivery system to introduce a consolidated group of mail pieces, wherein such placement in the delivery stream will determine the rates that will be charged.
Manifest delivery is a mail piece processing method and system which may be utilized with bulk delivery. Manifest delivery allows a mailer to document delivery costs and fees for all mail pieces in a mailing, such as a bulk delivery, via imprinted indicia, such as, for example, with a bar code. Each mail piece in the mailing is assigned a unique identification number that may be compared with a manifest which contains the unique identification number. The unique identification number is then coded into an indicia and imprinted on the corresponding mail piece. The imprinted indicia may also contain other information, such as, for example, delivery fee due. Thus, using the imprinted indicia eliminates the need to affix postage. Manifests and indicia may be used to track domestic or international deliveries, as well as fees for special services. Mailers may present manifest documentation to the delivery system office in hard copy or in an electronic format, such as, for example, on a diskette or via an e-mail.
Within the USPS, a mailer may introduce mail pieces at a number of different places in a delivery stream of the delivery system to obtain the benefit of a number of different rate classifications for the delivery. A delivery stream comprises the entire route a mail piece travels from the mailer to its destination. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional delivery system 100 and the flow of mail pieces in this system. For example, a consolidator or other mailer 110 may introduce a group of mail pieces at a number of different delivery system offices. Mailer 110 may introduce the group of mail pieces at a destination bulk delivery center (DBMC) 120, which represents the least finely sorted mail and the smallest postage savings compared to normal first class mailing. A manifest accompanying this group of mail pieces to DBMC 120 would include information about all the mail pieces in the group. Other options for introducing the group of mail pieces include destination sectional center facilities (DSCF) 130, wherein mail is sorted to an intermediate level farther in the delivery stream, providing an intermediate level of postage savings. The farthest location downstream in which the group of mail pieces can be introduced are destination delivery units (DDU) 140 which would be closest to the destination and where a mailer 110 would realize the greatest postage savings.
A mailer's use of DBMC 120, DSCF 130, and DDU 140 are governed by a multitude of rules. These rules govern, for example, required minimum numbers of mail pieces and the method of presenting the mail pieces, such as palletization of mail pieces. Often, mailers and/or consolidators are unaware of how and when to make critical decisions which will lead to the most cost effective mailing of their mail pieces.
Thus, there is a need to overcome these and other problems and provide a method and system for determining where to most cost-efficiently introduce a mail piece in a delivery system.